The present application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-133508 filed on May 9, 2002, Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-169946 filed on Jun. 11, 2002, and Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-284285 filed on Sep. 27, 2002, which are herein incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a carrying device for carrying a medium (medium to be printed) such as paper. The present invention also relates to a printing apparatus, a carrying method, and a printing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inkjet printers that perform printing by intermittently ejecting ink are known as printing apparatuses for printing images onto various types of printing media, including paper, cloth, and film. With such inkjet printers, printing is carried out by alternately repeating the step of moving the medium to be printed in the paper-carrying direction and setting its position and the step of ejecting ink while shifting the nozzles in the shifting direction (also called the scanning direction).
With printers that intermittently carry the medium to be printed and perform printing between these intermittent carries, the carrying of the medium to be printed can affect whether the image quality is good or bad.
It is an object of the present invention to increase the precision with which media such as printing media are carried.
A first main aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a carrying device comprising:
a carrying mechanism for carrying a medium according to a target carry amount;
wherein the carrying device:
stores first correction information for correcting the target carry amount according to the target carry amount;
receives information on the target carry amount from an outside section;
corrects the target carry amount based on the first correction information and second correction information that is stored in the outside section and that is for correcting the target carry amount according to the target carry amount; and
carries the medium with the carrying mechanism based on a corrected target carry amount.
A second main aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a carrying device comprising:
a carrying mechanism for intermittently carrying a medium according to a target carry amount;
wherein the carrying device:
determines a correction amount for the target carry amount for when performing an intermittent carry based on information on a carry amount at which carrying has been performed by the carrying mechanism before performing that carry.
A third primary aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object is a printing apparatus comprising:
a carrying mechanism for carrying a medium according to a target carry amount, and
a carriage for moving a plurality of nozzles arranged at a nozzle pitch kxc2x7D;
wherein the printing apparatus performs:
when forming, on the medium, dots at a dot pitch D in a carrying direction by alternately repeating carrying of the medium in the carrying direction using the carrying mechanism and ejection of ink from the nozzles that are moved,
carrying of the medium according to a target carry amount that has been corrected and carrying of the medium according to a target carry amount that has not been corrected, when performing k times of carries.
Features and objects of the present invention other than the above will become clear by reading the description of the present specification with reference to the appended drawings.